Tonight’s gig treads about as far from the zeitgeist as it can manage without falling off the end of the world and is all the stronger for it. As part of the evergreen Sonic Cathedral empire-to-be it’s more than a little pleasing that such nights not only exist but also seem to be flourishing, and with a line-up like this it’s not in the least bit surprising.

First up are The High Wire, struggling nobly with the constraints of trying to translate the tender glory of latest album Ahead Of The Rain into the live setting with only an acoustic guitar, a far-too-quiet keyboard and a single electric guitar adding colour. They’re mostly successful – ‘Easy’ and’Saint Bees’ lollop along, buoyed by the strength of the simple melodies – but instead of their sound gushing out of the speakers and washing over the crowd it merely floats along. It’s more consciously stripped back and at one point we’re even asked to “imagine the string section”, but is neither skeletal nor as bombastic as one would hope. Having said that, it’s testament to the quality of the material that they’re still hugely engaging and entertaining.

But when Sweden’s Surrounded (pictured) step up everything shifts up a gear or two. The Nautilus Years is the best album of 2008 so far by a country mile and as ‘Safe Tomorrow’s Sun’ starts to unleash its melodic majesty the mood gradually develops into that of euphoria. Eyes are closed, toes are tapped and words are mouthed as Marcus Knutsson’s guitar chimes over Marten Rydell’s vocals, creating a far larger sound than you’d think could come from the Social’s tiny stage. ‘Swimming To Galapagos’ is so sweet and tender it feels like waking up in the arms of a new lover and ‘Bolder Acrobat’ develops from being a straightforward Flaming Lips homage on record into some organic, swirling masterpiece that more than confirms the quiet majesty of these five unassuming guys in black T-shirts. And while there’s no rendition of the effortless epic ‘Human Pelagic’ it’s hard to shake the feeling that Surrounded are a very, very special band indeed. And tonight they were utterly fabulous for every conceivable reason.

Seeing Kyte for the first time is slightly shocking – you expect these new masters of shoegaze to be a bunch of aged, ragged beards hunched over their guitars, not this fresh-faced pack of musicians. And with such an unassuming stage presence (any chat is reserved to a few enquiries as to whether we’re OK, now and then someone crouches down to fiddle with a pedal) you’d be forgiven for thinking these guys weren’t much cop. But as soon as ‘Secular Ventures’ slips into view they become transformed – they don’t have to throw themselves about or be particularly engaging as showmen, their music is more that powerful enough to grab your attention like a vice. Shorn of the slightly plastic sounds that tended to dog their to-date recordings the guitars swoop and crunch with abandon, ably bolstered by heartbeat basslines and a pleasingly liberal approach to using a none-more-twinkly glockenspiel. ‘Boundaries’ and ‘Sunlight’ are like mini symphonies, glistening in the darkness before burning out brightly, and even though they aim at the expansive there’s no point at which they devolve into the self-indulgent – although they coat themselves in melody it’s still used economically and they display an admirable knowledge of how to structure a good pop song. But what’s most pleasing about Kyte’s performance – and the night as a whole – is how perfectly formed they are without trying to fit into anything else around at the moment.